Pompeo says US won’t quit fight in Venezuela, defends sanctions

SANTIAGO: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday defended sanctions on Venezuela and said the United States would not “quit the fight” in the socialist-run Latin American nation which is spiraling into deepening economic and political crisis.

Pompeo is on a three-day trip to Chile, Paraguay and Peru, a clutch of fast-growing countries in a region where Washington’s concerns are focused on China’s growing presence as well as the Venezuelan crisis.

“The United States and its allies will not quit this fight,” he said during an event in Chilean capital Santiago, adding that the country would keep supporting Venezuelans “courageously standing up for democracy in their home country.”

Washington is pressuring President Nicolas Maduro to step down and urging more countries to join the coalition supporting opposition leader Juan Guaido. South America has seen a political shift in recent years toward the right, and most nations have backed Guaido.

“It’s a historic opportunity when you have all but a handful of countries that are truly market-driven, democratic in ways that you haven’t had in South America for decades,” Pompeo told reporters earlier en route to Santiago, where he met with Chilean President Sebastián Piñera. Pompeo will travel later on Friday to Paraguay, the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state to the country since 1965, a gesture experts say underscores U.S. commitment to the region.

On Sunday he is set to visit Cucuta, a Colombian border city receiving significant numbers of Venezuelan migrants fleeing hunger and violence in their homeland.

Washington has imposed a raft of sanctions against Maduro’s government in an attempt to dislodge him from power. On Friday, it added four firms and nine ships to its blacklist.

Critics have warned that heavy sanctions could hurt ordinary Venezuelans, already suffering from hyperinflation and food and medicine shortages. Pompeo said the people recognized the United States was not to blame for the country’s crisis.

“I think they understand who the malign actor is here and I think they’ll see all the countries in the region, including the United States, as truly trying to help them,” he said.

Maduro blames U.S. sanctions for the country’s economic problems and dismisses Guaido as a United States puppet. While most Western nations have recognized Guaido as head of state, Russia, China and Cuba have stood by Maduro.